President Obama has directed his administration to accept at least 10,000 more Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said today.

“The president has directed his team to consider how we can further scale up our response and one thing that the United States can do is to begin to admit more Syrian refugees into the United States,” Earnest told reporters. “The president has directed his team to scale up that number next year and he’s informed his team that he would like them to accept, at least make preparations to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year.”

Earnest said the United States will take in about 1,500 Syrian refugees in FY2015, which ends at the end of the month.

He added that financial assistance is “by far the most effective way” for the United States to meet this urgent humanitarian need, by providing Syrians with medical supplies, food, water and education.

“Now we know the scale of this problem. It’s significant. And there are millions of people who have been driven from their homes because of this violence,” he said. “We know that admitting that it certainly is not feasible for millions of Syrians to come to this country, but what we can do is make sure that we are doing everything we can to try to provide for their basic needs.”

The refugees would go through the “most robust security process” and Obama’s intent is not to “cut corners on security protocols,” the White House said.

Earnest said the State Department has long considered raising the overall cap on refugees from throughout the globe, but it’s unclear how high that cap may be raised next year.

The current cap on refugees the United States accepts annually from all countries is 70,000, and it’s also unclear whether the 10,000 Syrians next year would be within that cap or in addition to it.

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